


Extracurricular Education

by TerminalMiraculosis



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Gen, Huey Week 2020, Huey being a good older brother, Pre-Canon, adhd dewey, takes place a few months before s1e1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25114108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerminalMiraculosis/pseuds/TerminalMiraculosis
Summary: Huey may only be the older brother by a matter of seconds, but it was a role he took very seriously. So when Dewey is having trouble with a teacher who doesn't understand him, Huey takes it upon himself to make sure she understands.
Relationships: Huey Duck & Dewey Duck
Comments: 10
Kudos: 148





	Extracurricular Education

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Huey Week 2020!](https://hueyweek2020.tumblr.com/) This is for the day 2 prompt, "Big Brother."

“Ugh!”

Huey looked up from his book as Dewey stormed into their room on the houseboat, arms crossed and huffing. He stalked over to the bunk beds and jumped face-first onto his, the bedsprings creaking from the sudden weight. 

“Reason number seven to steal the boat and go to Cape Suzette,” Dewey said, his voice angrily rising up from below Huey. “We could change schools.”

Huey slid his bookmark in and climbed down the latter, settling on the edge of Dewey’s bed. “Are you having problems with Mrs. Plume again?”

Dewey groaned in answer.

The school that Huey, Dewey, and Louie went to had a policy that separated siblings between classes, for reasons that eluded the three of them. Dewey had been unfortunate enough to land in Mrs. Plume’s class, who, in Huey’s opinion, sucked. He’d been having trouble with his grades, and Huey had suggested that he go to her to see if they could work something out. But apparently, they hadn’t worked anything out, if this was anything to go by.

“Did you try talking with her about—”

_ “Yes, _ I tried talking with her!” Dewey snapped. “I—sorry. I’m just frustrated.”

“It’s okay,” Huey assured. “What happened?”

Dewey rolled over onto his back, the covers twisting around his legs, and began gesticulating angrily. “She just—she didn’t even listen to me! I told her I was having trouble with the, the division stuff, and she just kept saying that I need to pay more attention in class. I said I was trying, but it was hard, and  _ then _ she said that if I spent less time doodling on the worksheets—ugh!” He slammed a fist against the mattress. “And, and, she kept making it sound like I was being  _ lazy _ but that’s not it!”

“Well, clearly she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Huey said. “You’re not lazy at all.  _ Louie’s _ lazy.”

“And he still gets better grades than me,” Dewey pouted, flopping over again. His anger seemed to melt into something more sloggy as he went on. “I wish I were smart like you and Louie. Then maybe I’d actually be able to get all this stuff to stick in my head, and it wouldn’t matter whether I can pay attention in class.”

“You  _ are _ smart,” Huey stressed. “ADHD doesn’t make you stupid.”

Dewey rolled his eyes. “Try telling  _ Mrs. Plume _ that.”

Huey felt his mind beginning to churn. “…Maybe I will.”

Dewey blinked up at him. “What?”

* * *

Heather Plume, as always, arrived at the school an hour early, a steaming mug of coffee in hand. She had no idea what demons had possessed her to teach  _ elementary _ school; she was forever envious of the local high school’s 9:00 start time.

Before she could collect everything for the day and get started on going over the vocab quizzes from yesterday, though, she had to deal with the young duck with a red hat who was standing in the middle of the classroom, hooking his tablet computer into the classroom projector. Because this was Duckburg, and these things happened.

“Hello?” she opened.

The boy turned, noticed her, and lit up. “Ah, Mrs. Plume! So nice to meet you, I’m Huey. I hope I’m not intruding?”

Heather was extremely tempted to say ‘you are,’ but she didn’t want him going to his mom or whatever and having her breathe down her neck, so instead she said, “Do you need something?”

“You know your student Dewey?”

Of course she knew her student Dewey. Couldn’t sit still for three seconds. “Yes?”

“Well, he’s my brother,” Huey explained.

“Oh.” Suddenly everything made sense.

“Since you two weren’t able to reach an agreement on how to accommodate him in your class, I thought I’d give you a short presentation!” He tapped a bit on the tablet, and a powerpoint came up on the screen, entitled ‘Accommodating ADHD in the Classroom.’

“Huey, this is all very, um…  _ nice, _ but—”

“First, let’s look at what behaviors to expect from an ADHD student,” Huey said, cutting her off by clicking to the next slide. “Teachers may be tempted to write off fidget activities such as drumming your fingers, tapping your leg, playing with a small toy, doodling, etc. as pure distractions, but multiple studies have shown that inattentiveness usually results from under stimulation to the brain, and as such, these activities usually provide an increase to content retention. As long as the activity isn’t bothering other students, teachers are not recommended to police such behaviors.”

Heather’s beak hung open. Were those… in-text citations?

The powerpoint transitioned, and Huey went on. “Extrapolating from that, ‘traditional’ lecture-based teaching styles have proven less effective than more interactive alternatives; their more streamlined dissemination of information is more than offset by lower student retention rates caused by lack of engagement with the material. This can be solved by…”

* * *

Thirty minutes and a countless number of slides later, and Heather’s coffee was no longer hot.

“…In conclusion, adopting a perspective focused more on changing classroom policies to accommodate students instead of attempting to change students to fit classroom policies is beneficial for both the child’s education and development,” Huey said. He clicked to the next slide, which was an itemized bibliography. “Oh! And that’s it. Um.” Huey rubbed awkwardly at the back of his head. Now that he’d finished with his presentation, it seemed like he didn’t quite know what to do next. “Thanks for listening?”

“No—thank  _ you,” _ Heather said. “I don’t quite know what to say. It’s embarrassing that I had to hear this from a student, but I’m glad you took the time to do this for Dewey. You’re a great brother.”

“So you’ll try to help him?” Huey asked hopefully.

“Your presentation was very persuasive,” Heather said with a smile. “The points you made about being more lenient with deadlines and giving gentle reminders should be easy, and I’ll have to think about my lesson plans. I’m not sure how much I can change them before the year is up, but… well. Just know I’m very thankful.” She paused. “Do you think you could find a way to send me that presentation, Huey? Your parents should have my email.”

Huey beamed. “Yeah! Of course! Wow, I wasn’t sure you were going to listen.”

“I think you had every right to be doubtful,” Heather admitted. She’d have to apologize to Dewey at some point, but for now… “You’d better get to class.”

* * *

It was during recess the next day that Huey got tackled in a hug by Dewey.

“Wahh!” Huey exclaimed, wheeling backwards unsteadily, only to be saved by Louie casually extending an arm to steady him.

“Huey!” Dewey said happily. “Whatever nerd stuff you did to Mrs. Plume worked! She didn’t even tell me to stop playing with my rubiks cube while she was talking!”

“I’m glad,” Huey said. “Such is the power of research! And if she ever doesn’t have time to help you one on one, you can always come to me, you know?”

Dewey gave him one more squeeze. “You’re the best older brother ever.”

“Yo, do you think you could whip up a presentation to convince Mr. Bluebeak that charging other students for borrowing school surprise shows entrepreneurial spirit and shouldn’t be against classroom policy?” Louie asked.

Huey frowned at him. “Um. No?”

“Mmm. Worst older brother ever.”

“Yes!” Dewey said. “That means I’m the best older brother to Louie!”

“Or you could be tied for worst,” Louie said.

“That would also mean we’re tied for best,” Huey said.

“Stop using logic on me,” Louie pouted. “It’s much harder to scheme this way.”

They devolved back into their regular antics from there, but Huey couldn’t help but smile whenever he saw how vibrant Dewey was acting—a stark contrast to his sullenness the previous day. He may only be the oldest by a matter of seconds, but it was a role he took seriously; and right now, he was glad he did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! As always, you can find me on tumblr over at [webby-vanderslap](https://webby-vanderslap.tumblr.com/).


End file.
